Real-Time Federated Auctions and Purchasing

1. A method for conducting an electronic auction, the method comprising: identifying an item for sale in the electronic auction; determining a distance between each of a plurality of devices and the item for sale, one of the plurality of devices being a host device that is conducting the electronic auction; identifying federatable devices of the plurality of devices wherein each federatable device is within a predetermined distance from the item for sale based on the distance determined; sending a radio request from the host device to the federatable devices causing the federatable devices to federate into an ad hoc wireless network through which the federated devices exchange messages; and conducting the electronic auction by exchanging messages between the federated devices via the ad hoc wireless network.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining a count of the federatable devices; and responsive to the determining, canceling the electronic auction.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a device of the plurality of devices is also a federatable device based on a pattern of movement of the device.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a device of the plurality of devices is also a federatable device based on a schedule of a user of the device.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising identifying a device of the plurality of devices as federatable responsive to the device moving to be within the predetermined range.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, for each of the plurality of devices, determining a distance between the device and the host device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the item for sale is a bulk item for sale.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the radio request includes a notification of the bulk item for sale.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the step of conducting includes exchanging bulk purchase messages between the federated devices, the bulk purchase messages including an indication of the number of federated devices in the ad hoc wireless network.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the bulk purchase messages further include an indication to split a bulk purchase corresponding to the bulk sale.